Tom Vickers

After a stuttering start to the season, which has seen them lose four of their first seven Aviva Premiership matches, Dickson and Co are steeling themselves for a New Year’s Day clash with Exeter Chiefs at Franklin’s Gardens.

Saints have taken a long, hard look in the mirror after the shock 25-23 defeat to London Irish at the Madejski Stadium last weekend.

And Dickson gave an open and honest account of what they have seen, outlining what he and his team-mates are doing to ensure the start of the new year goes more smoothly than the end of 2015.

Below is the Chron’s Q&A with the captain as he gives his views on the side’s current form and the clash with Exeter on the back of three games without a win.

Lee, you have mentioned getting back to ‘the Northampton way’ - what does that mean?

“As a team we’re built on hard work for each other and outworking teams for 80 minutes, making sure that we’re physical and we’re direct.

“When we’ve played big games here and we’ve won big games here, we’ve been hard and direct, a little bit hard-nosed.

“We’ve got a phenomenal pack, who have been on the front foot all year with a dominant set piece, and we’ve got a big backline.

“We’ve got the likes of Luther (Burrell), George (North), Fodes (Ben Foden), people like that hitting lines, and we need to utilise them a little bit more.

“The Northampton way is that we’ve got to make sure we’re a bit more hard-nosed, a bit more direct and we get a bit more front-foot ball.”

So why haven’t you quite been able to find the form you want of late?

“It’s been there in parts and just little errors have meant that games have not gone our way.